A good blog is (not so) hard to find

I think the best posts from the class were ones that included interesting, personal opinions about a topic as well as specific details from the writer’s life.  The reason we read blogs is to try and learn something about each other and what we are writing about—generalizations aren’t exactly the best vehicle for exposing ourselves to new ideas and opinions.  This concept of generalizing also applies to the photos we choose to post—there’s nothing more depressing than a post full of iStock photos found on Google that vaguely resemble something you mentioned in a post. Matt’s blog was one of the blogs that included a lot of interesting images that, though weren’t taken by him, are sort of weird and funny, like in his Wife on a Lease post and his “Free” Blog Post.

Photos like this...

Or this

Honesty and opinion are also some of the main components of the well-written blogs, which help combat this habit of generalization. I remember Cellik’s first open post, and the way he was so honest about what was going on in his life. He talked about how he didn’t feel like the University of Michigan was where he was meant to be, and it was refreshing to begin to get to know him and what he was going through in this post. This honesty continued throughout his blog, too, and we were able to see his thoughts and feelings towards the university of Michigan evolve: in his post about growth, he expanded on his first post and shared more about how he was exploring his options outside of U of M, and then in his 18^th post about how he was seriously considering moving to Texas next year.

Interesting posts also were written with a specific voice that really allowed us to hear the writer’s thoughts as we read. It’s often easier to write with this voice in the open posts, yet more difficult to express this same opinion and use of language when the topic seems more academic. However, the posts that managed show this same degree of opinion and style of writing in the more outlined topics were some of the most interesting. Lita’s writing does this especially well, particularly through her literary blog review where she really adds her own opinion about blogging, and not just if she thought a blog was good or bad.